If you aren’t one of the lucky fans (like our music columnist Josh Fewings) who managed to secure tickets to see The Tragically Hip on their farewell tour, here’s the next best thing: get together for a live viewing party of The Hip’s final concert.

CBC has acquired the rights to broadcast The Hip’s final concert, from the band’s hometown of Kingston, on Saturday, August 20th.

Tickets for the Hip’s Man Machine Poem tour, announced after frontman Gord Downie revealed he has incurable brain cancer, sold out in less than a minute this past spring. Fans unable to get tickets — or who refused to pay inflated prices to scalpers — approached the CBC to broadcast one of the shows live.

CBC will be broadcasting The Hip’s last concert live and commercial free on CBC-TV, Radio One, Radio 2, cbcmusic.ca and on YouTube. The concert begins at around 8:30 p.m.

Many communities across Canada and in Ontario are hosting public viewing parties of the CBC broadcast, including a few in The Kawarthas.

Legally, if you wish to host a public screening of the broadcast, you need to get CBC approval — which includes certain conditions like not charging any kind of fee for the viewing (even for fundraising), not using the viewing for third-party advertising or marketing, and providing proof of liability insurance if more than 40 people will be attending the screening.

Of course, you don’t need to seek CBC approval if you’re just having a private screening with friends and family.

Here’s our list of public viewing parties so far for The Hip’s final concert in The Kawarthas. Public screenings marked with an asterisk * have been officially approved by the CBC. If you know of a screening that’s missing from our list, please email editor@kawarthanow.com with the details and we’ll add it.

Bancroft

• Bancroft Eatery and Brew Pub (4 Bridge St., 613-332-3450)

Bobcaygeon

• * “Last Concert Under The Constellations”. Bolton Street will be closed beginning at 7 p.m. for a Jumbotron screening of the concert. Donations will be accepted for The Cancer Society.
• 72 Bolton Sports Cafe (72 Bolton St., 705-738-2900)

Buckhorn

• Marley’s Bar & Grill (17 Fire Route 82 Catalina Bay, 705-868-2545)

Campbellford

• Church-key Pub & Grindhouse (26 Bridge St. W., 705-653-0001)

Cannington

• The Locker Sports Bar & Grill (14 Cameron St. W., 705-432-3200)

Coboconk

• * The Pattie House Smokin’ Barbecue Restaurant (6673 Hwy 35, 705-454-8100)

Cobourg

• The Cat & The Fiddle (38 Covert St., 905-377-9029)
• * Northumberland Ribfest and Music Festival (Victoria Park)

Minden

• Dominion Hotel (113 Bobcaygeon Rd., 705-286-6954)

Peterborough

• Brickhouse Craft Burger Grill (123 Simcoe St., 705-874-7474)
• Historic Red Dog Tavern (189 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-750-1710). Following the screening, at around 11 p.m., Peterborough Folk Festival is hosting a musical tribute to The Hip hosted by Meilissa Payne, Matt Greco, and Anna Ruddic, and featuring Express and Co., The Kents, and more. Admission to the tribute show is by donation, with 100% of the donations will go to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research.
• * Millennium Park, Downtown Peterborough (behind Silver Bean Cafe)
• * Riverside Grill & Gazebo, Holiday Inn Peterborough Waterfront (150 George St., Peterborough, 705-743-1144)
• Spanky’s Downtown Pub & Patio (201 Hunter St. W., 705-874-5078)
• The Tankhouse Pub (295 George St. N., 705-743-2717)
• * The Venue (286 George St. N., 705-876-0008)

Canadian landscape artist Tim Packer used to be dismissive of social media, believing the only thing it was good for was cat videos and giggling babies — until a photo of his painting went viral.

And on LinkedIn, no less — a social network not usually associated with the term.

But that’s what happened when, on July 19th — after encouragement from his son — the Toronto-based painter reluctantly posted a photo of himself with his 4′ by 7′ painting “Shall We Dance” on LinkedIn.

To Tim’s surprise, the post became extremely popular. As of the date of this story, it has over 74,000 likes and over 6,700 comments on LinkedIn.

It became so popular in fact, that LinkedIn temporarily suspended Tim’s account and has threatened to disable it.

That’s because, when the post went viral, Tim began to thank and respond to each comment from LinkedIn users. Because of the unusually high level of engagement, LinkedIn suspended Tim’s account for an hour, suspecting him of using tactics to increase its popularity.

Despite several assurances from Tim that he’s only responding to comments appearing on his post, LinkedIn has continued to threaten to permanently disable his account.

“I’ve been getting up at 4 a.m. every morning to spend four hours responding to comments before I work on my paintings,” Tim says. “Because I believe that I should treat people online the same way as I would in person.”

However, since LinkedIn’s warning, Tim has only been responding to specific questions — leaving thousands of comments unanswered.

“While I appreciate the exposure and business LinkedIn has given me, it is killing me to read all of these wonderful comments and not being able to say thank you”, he says.

Since the post went viral, Tim’s business has boomed. At his opening the following week, “Shall We Dance” — his most expensive painting to date — sold in the first hour, with a second offer for the piece leading to a commissioned painting for a new fan in England who saw the piece on LinkedIn.

Tim has also received hundreds of requests for prints of “Shall We Dance” and has had inquiries from distributors in China, the UK, and Europe since the post went viral. You can meet the artist in person at the Gallery on the Lake on August 13, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. as part of their “Meet the Artist” weekend.

Residents of The Kawarthas have a chance to see the painting that started it all in real life. Although “Shall We Dance” has been sold, it will be on display until Friday, August 26, at The Gallery on the Lake (65 Gallery on the Lake Rd, Buckhorn, 705-657-1078).

For more information about Tim Packer, visit www.timpacker.com.

Like a sick joke being played on mutliplex audiences everywhere in the summer of 2016, we must endure another badly lit two hours of franchise crossover exposition. David Ayer’s absurdly hyped Suicide Squad is not a disappointment per se, as it looked like a editing room mess from the get-go, but it is severely uneven and the titular ensemble inevitably ensures that it never hits any recognizable tone.

It is difficult to escape the film’s current promotional stranglehold on social media. And indeed, there is a lot to bank on when you’re sitting on a picture that is comprised of essentially nothing but “trailer moments.” As of writing this, I advise you all to buy shares in Hot Topic because the impending merchandising onslaught will surely surpass even The Nightmare Before Christmas as the ultimate badge of teenage “non-conformity.”

Mercifully, this is a DC comics film that finally wants its viewers to have some fun. And hey — I actually laughed a couple of times! This was genuine laughter derived from intentional jokes, not sniggering at latex-bound muscle boys having a measuring contest to see who has the hardest childhood.

Still, the shadow of Zach Snyder looms like a stench (he has a producing credit) over the proceedings. Particularly in the first half, which is little more than introducing a likely already familiar crowd to the latest incarnations of some very famous characters.

And there are a lot of characters. Take a drink every time someone says: “This is _____, but they’re known on the street as _____.”

This tedious sequence feels like a commercial that you can’t skip and batters you with a veritable who’s who of classic rock from a staggeringly on-the-nose soundtrack. I’m sure that half the budget went to securing the licensing rights, but does anyone really need to hear 30 seconds of “House of the Rising Sun” that badly?

A secret government division — headed by the reliably classy Viola Davis — recruits an elite team of imprisoned supervillians to stage unusual and dangerous black ops in exchange for reductions on their collective life sentences. That’s about it for plot other than some muddled nonsense involving ancient Mayan magic that’s completely at odds with the street justice skull-crushing that finally goes down.

We all came to see Margot Robbie fight the hot and flash her perfect teeth while she bludgeons thugs with a custom baseball bat. We didn’t come to see Cara Delevingne and her notorious eyebrow situation covered in CGI mud and speaking through a voodoo vocoder.

It is strange that a movie about the ultimate rogues gallery of villains refuses to refer to them as such. Instead, the eye-rolling term “Meta Humans” is repeatedly over-enunciated. No one is coming to a story like this expecting any semblance of reality. Just call them what they are.

Critically for the brand, this amounts to more than a starry posse in heavy makeup fighting each other for screen time. There is some genuine chemistry between some players.

The ageless and effortlessly likeable Will Smith is smartly cast in a uncharacteristically sadistic role. His portrayal of Deadshot — the assassin who never misses — gets most of the backstory along with Robbie’s coquettish psychopath, Harley Quinn.

Robbie wrings every ounce of neon sass out of the long-standing fan favourite that she can. It’s a career-changing performance that she clearly had great fun with. Her scenes with Smith are natural and engaging, but obviously the scenes everyone was waiting for are those she shares with Jared Leto’s mysterious take on the Joker.

If Heath Ledger’s almost mythic performance was the hangover, then Leto’s creation is the champagne from the night before. Early publicity stills depicted him as some low rent looking Faces of Meth Party City cosplay, but his Joker in motion is sinister and scary.

Much has been made of his method acting and sending his costars a variety of gifts, including live rats and used condoms, but clearly it paid off. It’s refreshing to see the iconic character survive in his own element rather than relentlessly squaring off against Batman. Though, sad Ben Affleck does show his sullen face a couple of times.

It takes over a hour to get there, but the action is fast and surprisingly not flashy compared to its peers. Mostly well-choreographed hand-to-hand combat on what is unmistakably Yonge St. before the de rigueur smackdown with a villian that will be utterly incomprehensible to the uninitiated.

Though tongue-in-cheek at times, the film is not as self-aware as it thinks it is. It’s hugely enjoyable watching colourful nihilists indulge in their most primal desires purely for the pain-inflicting enjoyment of it, but you know some soggy requisite redemption is ticking away.

That’s what you get when you’re a studio whose last two brand films failed and you’ve got to ensure a PG-13 for a story about the most dangerous psychopaths in the world. Don’t get me wrong, there’s clearly plenty of violence, but it’s borderline slapstick and never taps into the psychological potential that glides beneath the surface.

There are some moments of self-reflection. Harley plays bartender when the squad is at its lowest and they contemplate the nature of evil and honour among thieves. It’s shockingly astute for what boils down to little more than a vehicle for commercial tie-ins.

If it doesn’t all quite add up in the end, there are still enough hits to compensate for the misses and, as usual, it makes big promises of what is to come. Beyond the impending Justice League films, Robbie has signed on for her own Harley Quinn film.

Now we’ll just have to wait another two or three years to get what we all really came here for … and that is the cruelest joke of all.

All photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Suicide Squad – Official Trailer

Of the thousands who will flock to Del Crary Park August 6 for Spoons’ inaugural Peterborough Musicfest appearance, one among them will take considerable pride in having played a key role in the New Wave pop band’s rise to fame in the 1980s.

When Burlington-born Spoons recorded its second album Arias & Symphonies in 1982 at Toronto’s Sounds Interchange, John Punter sat front and centre as the album’s producer.

The album’s first single, “Nova Heart”, set the stage for what followed as Spoons charted a course through the decade as one of Canada’s top-selling and most popular music acts.

Punter left the music recording business for good in 1997 and, in 2000, assumed co-ownership of Peterborough’s historic Pig’s Ear Tavern with his wife, Lylie Ryder. As the 67-year-old affable Englishman describes it, for all his success as a recording engineer and producer — The Hollies, Nazareth, Slade, Roxy Music and John Mellencamp were among his clients — owning and managing a pub was always a dream.

By contrast, Gordon Deppe and Sandy Horne never left the business and, more than 35 years after they founded Spoons in Burlington, Ontario, the pair today form the band’s only original members.

Stick Figure Neighbourhood, the band’s debut album produced by Daniel Lanois, was released in 1981 but it was the follow-up, Arias & Symphonies, that provided the proverbial breakthrough with its Top 40 singles “Nova Heart”, “Smiling In Winter” and the title track.

“Every song I’ve ever put out, I’ve always said, ‘Oh, what are we doing? This is not going to do anything,'” noted Deppe in a 2015 interview with Sue Sadzak posted at www.musiclifemagazine.net.

“Nova Heart” – Spoons

“Nova Heart came out when Queen, Led Zeppelin and The Who were on the charts. I would never in a million years think it would do anything. I was as surprised as everyone else.”

“Nova Heart” did indeed do something, with the band’s higher profile leading to its opening shows for huge international acts such as Culture Club, Simple Minds, and The Police, and the release of Talkback, its third album in three years, which saw “Old Emotions” chart well. Come 1984, the release of the singles “Tell No Lies” and “Romantic Traffic”— both songs were included on the movie soundtrack for Listen To The City — solidified the band’s place commercially.

“In Romantic Traffic, there was something about the simplicity of that little hook,” said Deppe.

“I kind of knew it was catchy but never thought it would do as well as it did. I’m glad to see how every generation seems to catch that and embrace that simple one syllable thing.”

“Tell No Lies” – Spoons

When 1986 album release Bridges Over Borders failed to chart or produce a single, Spoons reunited with Punter two years later, the result being Vertigo Tango and two hit singles in “Waterline” and “When Time Turns Around”.

Vertigo Tango would be the band’s last studio album of original material for 23 years, with 2011 bring the release of Static In Transmission. During the time between albums, Spoons took a break from recording, although the 1994 release of compilation album Collectible Spoons led to a major tour.

In 2007, Unexpected Guest At A Cancelled Party, a recording of previously unreleased material, again kept Spoons on people’s radar years after the band’s heyday,

“Most of the ’80s were cringe worthy … it was like 10 years of Halloween,” assesses Deppe.

“You know we did some silly things. We can laugh about some of the hair and clothes that were part of the times.

“Musically, I’m pretty happy with what we did. It’s standing the test of time. I’ll never cringe about anything we did musically.”

“Old Emotions” – Spoons

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 19 free-admission concerts during its milestone 30th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert and/or the 2016 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, August 4 to Wednesday, August 10.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

Meet Walter Mariga, visiting sculptor at ZimArt

This August, amble through an outdoor sculpture garden to your heart’s content while soaking up the sun. ZimArt’s Rice Lake Gallery, just about 20 minutes out of Peterborough (855 2nd line, Bailieboro, 705-939-6144), is a sculpture garden in a picturesque rural setting. After a lovely drive, you will be warmly welcomed and encouraged to explore the grounds.

I had the opportunity to visit ZimArt and meet curator Fran Fearnley and artist Walter Mariga. ZimArt will be a hub of activity this August. The summer show will be opening on Saturday, August 6th. Don’t miss this opportunity to soak up live Zimbabwean music and a festive atmosphere!

There will be workshops and even dance classes throughout the month and you can call and register anytime for a curator’s talk and tour. Just in case you miss the opening party, there will also be a closing party on September 4th, with more live music and festivities.

As I investigate the sculptures, sunlight dances across the grass as trees above blow in the wind. One stone woman is carved from an interesting looking mottled green stone: it is “Confident Woman” by sculptor Walter Mariga, carved from leopard stone found exclusively in the mountains of Zimbabwe.

Walter mentions that this sculpture took about 10 years to complete! His creative process sometimes involves a lot of time contemplating the stone to get it just right. After all, once you carve into the stone, there is no going back.

Walter’s face lights up as he describes his first experiences carving stone under the stern tutelage of his father, sculptor Joram Mariga.

“At first, he tried to discourage me,” Walter says. “He gave me the hardest most difficult stone to work with. But I was in love with art … I could not stop.”

It was onwards and upwards from there and, today, a seasoned sculptor himself, Walter is here in Ontario for a residency at ZimArt, where he will be teaching a number of classes and giving demonstrations of his process.

Conducting a short demonstration, Walter sits down before a hunk of stone and grabs a pair of safety glasses. “Safety first,” he says, grinning. First he chisels the stone using a tool resembling a fork; as the fork is hammered across the surface, it leaves behind lines in the stone which he then removes with a flat chisel.

Walter then expertly chops off irregularities in the stone using a “chasing hammer”. Finally, he sands the stone down using finer and finer grades of sandpaper. To create the glossy finish, Walter explains he pours wax over the hot stone and then polishes it.

“At home we build a fire and heat up the stone to open up the pores of the rock.” At this point, hot wax is poured onto the stone, which is absorbed into it and is then polished with a cloth, revealing the colours and marbled designs within the stone.

The rocks are graded on a scale representing hardness; typically, the stones used are very hard. If soapstone is a one and diamonds are a 10, then these rocks from Zimbabwe are 7.5 or 8 on the scale. Walter says this might be roughly equivalent to granite.

If you have any interest in working with stone, avail yourself of this wonderful opportunity. Walter has been sculpting since the age of 12. Learning how to work with the materials at an early age, he is also skilled at instructing others. The creative process however, will be up to you!

ZimArt’s 17th annual exhibition and sale of Zimbabwean stone sculpture will feature the work of the late Joram Mariga (known as the father of Shona sculpture), five members of his family who were all mentored by him (including Walter), as well as the 50 plus artists ZimArt represents.

The public opening of the exhibition is on Saturday, August 6th from 3 to 6 p.m., with live Zimbabwean music by Nhapatipi. The exhibition continues until Sunday, September 4th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, with a closing party on September 4th from 2 to 5 p.m., also featuring live Zimbabwean music by Nhapatipi. Admission is free.

Art Gallery of Bancroft presents Finding Critical Mass, a show of Algonquin Art and Culture

Now for a show about cultural traditions closer to home.

The Art Gallery of Bancroft (10 Flint St., Bancroft On. 613-332-1542) will be hosting a show celebrating Algonquin culture. The opening on Friday, August 5th is a great opportunity to celebrate and learn about Algonquin traditions.

Curated by Algonquin sculptor Robin Tinney, the show brings together a diverse group of Algonquin artists working in a number of disciplines. For some, it will be their first exhibition.

The show runs from Wednesday, August 3rd to Saturday, September 3rd, with an opening reception on Friday August 5th at 7 p.m. The gallery’s hours of operation are Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Proximity Fine Art features Beth McCubbin

At Proximity Fine Art, you will find the sculptures of ceramic artist Beth McCubbin featured this month.

Beth’s work will be on display until the Sunday of the September long weekend, when Proximity Fine Art will close, marking the end of the 2016 summer season. All the more reason to go while you still can!

Proximity Fine Art is located upstairs at Carveth’s Marina (426 Carveth’s Marina Rd., Lakefield). It’s open from noon to 5 p.m. from Thursday to Sunday or by appointment. For more information, contact Christy Haldane at 705-931-0855.

Peterborough Poetry Slam: the art of the spoken word

Have you ever seen a spoken word performance live? You might be surprised to know that Peterborough has a burgeoning scene that is worth checking out.

Enjoy the dimly lit laid back atmosphere of The Spill (414 George St. North, 705-748-6167) and while you sip on your choice beverage — be it coffee or alcohol, or perhaps a milkshake (yes, they have it all) — watch and listen to a variety of artists perform spoken word pieces. Or just maybe you will get up on stage yourself!

On Thursday August 5th, a Peterborough Poetry Slam will be happening at The Spill featuring Dave Silverberg. As a spoken word artist, he has performed across Canada and is the editor of Canada’s only spoken word anthology, Mic Check (Quattro Books). He is also the founder and artistic director of the Toronto Poetry Slam.

Come out and become a part of this growing scene, share your narratives and hear the talented voices this city has to offer. Sign-up is at 7:30 p.m. and the slam starts at 8 p.m. Cost is $5 or pay what you can.

Kawartha Arts Network: Exhibit of photography and photo-based work

The Kawartha Arts Network will be having their annual show of photography and photo-based work running from August 4th until August 27th.

The event takes place at Art on Kent (41 Kent St. W., 2nd Floor, Lindsay).

There will be a reception on Saturday, August 6th from 1 to 3 p.m., with artists in attendance.